How Do You Align The Technical Team With The Product Vision And Overarching Goals Of The Company
Some recruiters might reserve this question for a technical product manager interview. However, most product manager interviewers tend to include this question in their interview process since it is more people management-related as opposed to technical.
With that in mind, the question invites candidates to touch on the strategies they use to unify the technical team with product strategy.
The nature of the question implies that fluid communication and frequent follow-ups will be crucial in this phase.
Candidates should refer to the importance of conducting as many meetings as necessary. In doing so, they must mention how important it is to sensitize the technical team and orient them on the product vision as well as the companys overarching goals.
The best candidates will also speak to the passive and active resistance that the technical team will display either before or during the development phase. You must mention how your meetings will help to reduce any type of resistance. Be sure to indicate that you will conduct ad-hoc meetings as needed in order to resolve specific concerns that one or more team members may have.
Here are some more technical product management-related questions that recruiters can ask:
3. Talk me through how you would write an algorithm to recommend friends to add.
4. Explain how you would write an algorithm to recommend contacts to add.
5. Describe how you would write an algorithm to recommend articles to a user.
Faqs About The Pm Interview Process
Below are some of the most frequently asked questions about how to prepare for the PM interview.
How do I prepare for a product manager interview?
- Step 1: Research the company you’re applying to and learn the product manager interview loop for that company.
- Step 2: Choose one type of interview questions for that role .
- Step 3: Review the most common interview questions. Create stories from your resume to prepare for your interview. Practice using the STAR method to answer each question.
- Step 4: Compare your answers to the most popular answers to interview questions from people who landed the job.
- Step 5: Move between interview question categories and repeat.
What makes a good PM interview?
Ultimately, your product manager interview will come down to three things.
Is Product Manager a Technical Role?
Depending on the company, your product management role may be technical. Companies like Google encourage a strong technical and coding background to succeed in their product management positions. However, many companies don’t require a technical background to lead technical teams.
Is Product Management a Stressful Job?
Study up on example PM interview questions
How Do You Determine When A Product Is Well
People have different views on what a well-designed product is. By asking this question, you can determine whether a candidate prioritizes the factors you believe are important for every product. What to look for in an answer:
- A logical definition of a well-designed product
- Explanation of their answer
- Effective communication skills
Example:
“A well-designed product is simple, functional and beginner-friendly. It must deliver on its promises, and users must be able to use it without having to read manuals. It must also meet stakeholders’ goals before its launch and be environmentally friendly.”
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How Would You Manage A Team That Works Across Time Zones
Highly-efficient product teams give full visibility into their planning and activities so task hand-offs are quicker. At the intersection of it all is the product manager. This person should clearly communicate expectations and vision so all contributors are ready to get to work without confusion about whats happening.
Describe your best practices to set up the team for success! A few examples to consider:
- Breaking down silos with communication channels
- Using modern and relevant product management tools
- Standardizing product processes and information sharing
How To Prepare For Product Sense Questions
Heres a step-wise framework you should follow to answer such questions effectively.
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Quality Manager Interview Questions
The Indeed Editorial Team comprises a diverse and talented team of writers, researchers and subject matter experts equipped with Indeed’s data and insights to deliver useful tips to help guide your career journey.
Quality management involves supervising tasks and responsibilities to ensure a set level of excellence. To hire a quality manager, hiring managers ask interview questions to assess candidates’ skills and experience and to ensure they’re a good fit for their company’s needs. Understanding how to answer such interview questions can help you create a good impression, succeed in the interview, and get the job. In this article, we provide general, background and experience-related, in-depth quality manager interview questions, and highlight six questions with sample answers.
Take Notes While Your Interviewer Asks The Question
This is a crucial step before you answer a product management interview question. As the interviewer asks your interview question or lays out the parameters and constraints, be sure to actively listen to them.
Make notes of the critical points as they do so.
This part of the interview process may feel redundant if you already know how to answer a question. But slowing down and showing that you can listen to directions and process information effectively is equally valuable.
Take the time to get on the same page as your interviewer.
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More Product Manager Interview Questions
Here are 20 more product manager interview questions many candidates encounter:
Question : How Would You Improve X Product
Another product design question, this one assesses how well you can analyze an existing products features and change them to better meet user needs.
Below is an abbreviated sample answer to this question, using the BUS framework, same as question 1 above. For the complete answer and an explanation of the framework, take a look at our guide to product improvement questions.
Sample answer: How would you improve Facebook?
Business objective
First, clarify the target user and the specific product. Assume here that the interviewer wants you to improve Facebook’s Ads Manager, and that the business objective is to grow the conversion rate from registered to active users amongst small businesses.
User problems
Brainstorm typical problems small businesses face using Facebook Ads:
It makes sense to prioritize solving problems that will let users launch an ad and see results as quickly as possible. Therefore, focus on problem two.
Solutions
Here are some solutions which could help solve problem two:
Assume youve discussed with the interviewer and chosen option b.
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Question : What Is Your Favorite Product And Why
With this question, interviewers are assessing your understanding of product design, your ability to deliver constructive criticism, and your knowledge of a specific product. They may ask about your favorite product in general or your favorite among their own line of products.
Below is an abbreviated sample answer using the BUS framework. For the full answer and an explanation of the framework to use in your own answers, take a look at our guide to the favorite product interview question.
Sample answer: What is your favorite product and why?
Business objective
“My favorite product right now is Instagram. I tend to use Instagram mostly as an end user, not an advertiser, so let me explain more about the product from that user perspective. Heres one of the problems it addresses:
User problems
It is tough to find one easy place to share casual photos, promote artwork, or build a small business where there are many users who are likely to find and share your content.
Solutions
Instagram solves this problem by giving users the option of exactly what accounts to follow, so theres a really high chance a users feed is full of content theyre going to enjoy as soon as the app launches on their phone. This is a better solution than some alternatives which require you to scroll through videos at random until the algorithm catches on to what you like .
For more help, heres a video example of an answer to the favorite product question, from an ex-Google PM.
How To Prepare For Product Manager Interviews
With a lot to cover, its best to take a systematic approach to make the most of your practice time.
Below youll find links to free resources and three introductory steps that you can take to prepare your answers to typical PM interview questions.
Alternatively, if youre looking to save time and follow a more guided approach on your overall interview preparation, we recommend signing up to the product manager interview course. The course includes lessons on how to answer all question types, examples of high-quality answers, mock interview videos, and more than 300 practice questions.
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Our Target Audience Is 18
Why the Interviewer Asks This Question
Written by Karrie Day on October 21st, 2022
Remember To
Remember to include more than one channel in your marketing strategy response. Principal product managers should understand the concept and value of omnichannel marketing.Also, remember to thoroughly research the product lines and related consumer demographics prior to your interview. The time invested researching this information should help to improve the quality of your responses to several questions during your principal product manager interview.
Written by Karrie Day on October 21st, 2022
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Product Manager Case Study Interview Questions
The Indeed Editorial Team comprises a diverse and talented team of writers, researchers and subject matter experts equipped with Indeed’s data and insights to deliver useful tips to help guide your career journey.
Effectively interviewing for an available product manager position often entails highlighting your knowledge of product design, development, marketing and project management to a prospective employer. Hiring managers often create case studies to determine how qualified candidates might handle certain situations if hired. Learning how to answer case study questions effectively can help you separate yourself from competitive applicants and secure a product manager position. In this article, we discuss some product manager case study interview questions and provide sample answers and tips you can review when preparing for your interview.
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Interview Questions About Product Strategy
As a product manager, you will be responsible for the entire roadmap delivery. This means you need to be comfortable with strategic thinking across key aspects of a valuable product strategy.
Product strategy questions are generally open-ended and centred around the market share, product launch, competitor evaluation and so on. Some examples include:
- How would you determine which neighbourhood to launch your hyperlocal delivery service in?
- Should Instagram get into events? If so, then how would you launch it?
- How would you acquire more users for Uber?
- What should Oyos strategy be during the Covid-19 pandemic?
- What is the biggest threat to Youtube?
- How would you grow Airbnb Experiences?
On What Parameters Do You Base The Performance Of A Product In The Market From A Product Managers Perspective
A products market success can be measured on 4 parameters:
Product Usage- monthly users and users per feature.
Product Quality- escalation and negative feedbacks, product testing to validate the quality of the product and draw a roadmap for ongoing improvement.
Product Development- On-time delivery, resource availability and estimated time to complete development.
Business performance- Customer experience, revenues, bookings, profits, and costs.
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How Do You Like To Work Whats Your Pm Style
Questions PurposeThey want to know whats your favorite way to work. Are you a quiet PM type, cracking away at some Redash dashboard in a corner? Or are you out talking to customers, designers, and devs in order to gain insights and drive the business?
How to AnswerTell them you like to work collaboratively. Thats the only answer they want to hear. Whatever type of PM job it is, your answer should tell a story about how you like to work collaboratively with customers, designers, other PMs, developers, and so on. Nobody wants a PM that likes to work by themselves thats the antithesis of the jobs purpose. Tell a story about an important collaboration you had with a dev, designer, other product manager, data scientist, or a customer, and then tell them thats how you like to work.
The 10 Most Important Product Manager Interview Questions
The types of questions you can expect to be asked in a Product Management interview are pretty vast and varied. But in general, youll probably be asked some of the following:
Questions will vary depending on the role, the company, and the industry, and the types of questions youll be asked will change as you move through the interview process.
Thats a lot of preparing to do! So here weve laid out every single type of question you could possibly be asking in a Product Management interview
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Question 1: Explain A Technical Concept To A Non
Finally, interviewers sometimes ask technical explainer questions like this one in order to assess how well you understand relevant technical concepts to the position youre applying for, as well as if you can communicate with teams of engineers.
Below is a shortened sample answer to the question, explain how the internet works. For a framework you can use for this type of question, as well as the full sample answer, take a look at our guide to answering technical questions in PM interviews.
Sample answer: Explain how the internet works
Clarify
To reduce the scope of the explanation, you can start with, The internet is composed of many complex elements. I could talk about network connections, blockchain technology, specific web services, etc. But the most fundamental feature of the Internet is probably that websites can be accessed by typing a URL in a browser, so this is what I suggest we focus on.
Explain step by step
Take some time to write out your thoughts, then walk the interviewer through the steps:
Conclude and discuss
